Thursday Reads: Ignorance Is Bliss Edition

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity — Rev. Martin Luther King

Good Morning!!

Over the past year, we have been exposed to the amazing ignorance of members of the Stupid Party, formerly the GOP.  We sat through countless inane Republican primary debates, listened to idiotic speeches by stupendous morons like Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Herman Cain.  We’ve watched Congressional Republicans like Paul Ryan propose crazy budget plans and wage and insane war on women’s rights and women’s access to health care.  If it weren’t for the Democratic Senate, we’d goddess only knows where we’d be right now.

Mitt Romney finally won the Republican Primary by flooding the airwaves with millions of dollars worth of negative ads against other members of the Stupid Party.  And now we’ve watched for months as this blithering idiot repeatedly changes his mind on every possible issue and contorts himself into whatever he thinks the most extreme and ignorant members of the Stupid Party want him to be.

For the past few days we’ve dealt with the fallout of an interview with Missouri Stupid Party Senate Candidate Todd Akin in which he opined about “legitimate rape” vs. … what? The kind where she was asking for it and then lied about it afterward? The kind where she didn’t fight hard enough to get bad enough wounds to prove she didn’t ask for it? Who the hell knows? All I know is that those ignorant words from a very ignorant man have angered a hell of a lot of Americans and probably reset the presidential campaign.

I have to admit, I’m a bit fed up at the moment. So in the spirit of the insanity we’ve been living through, I’ve gathered some wacky reads for you this morning–mostly on the theme of ignorance. Here goes.

If you’re a woman, you must read this hilarious post at Jezebel on one of those stupid interviews the entertainment media loves–where they talk to men about what’s wrong with women. Lindy West writes:

I’ve been doing some scholarly research, and I noticed this thing that’s been really dragging society down for the past few millennia: it’s that everything is wrong with you. You are gross. First of all, your hair is gross, because it is not long and thick enough. But don’t strap fake hair to your head! That’s also gross! Also, what the fuck is up with your skin? It is so dry and scaly like a lizard (but not one of those sexy lizards)! Except uuuuuuugh, do you have to take so long putting on your idiotic woman-lotion? This penis isn’t going to fondle itself! CHOP CHOP. Now, I know all this contradictory minutiae regarding your attractiveness can get confusing (especially with your lipstick-encrusted walnut brains!), but luckily, plenty of guys are generous enough to explain what they don’t like about you in great detail. Over and over. You’re welcome.

For your edification, the good folks over at Yahoo have compiled a list of the “15 Biggest Beauty Turnoffs from Real Guys”—yet another survey of “real guys” to reinforce the precise line of shit we women need to walk to remain attractive to them (it’s the least we can do, really). Because that media trope never gets tired.

Click on the link to read the whole thing. If it doesn’t touch a nerve, I’ll be shocked.

And speaking of beauty, here’s a great piece about Scott Brown, or as Charles Pierce calls him, Senator McDreamy.

Soon after the congressman, Representative Todd Akin, said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that women who are victims of “legitimate” rape rarely become pregnant, both Senate candidates here seized on the comments for their own benefit.

Senator Scott P. Brown, a Republican who is locked in a tight re-election battle against Elizabeth Warren, used them to distance himself from his party — a necessity in deep-blue Massachusetts. He was the first Republican senator to call on Mr. Akin to quit his race for the Senate. As Mr. Brown told a group of women here on Tuesday, he was feeling a little heady from the experience.

“Gail and I were laying in bed last night and talking a little bit, as we do every night,” he said, “and I said: ‘Honey, can you imagine? Here I am, Scott Brown from Wrentham, and I’ve got a truck that’s got 238,000 miles on it and, you know, something like this comes up and I’m the first guy in the country to even bring it up and tell the guy to step down,’ ” Mr. Brown said.

He said his denunciation of Mr. Akin’s comments was “really kind of amazing, kind of eye-opening” and “led to other senators and other people and other groups to say, you know what, that conversation has no place in the public discourse.”

Ooooooh! Isn’t he wonderful? He’s my hero — NOT. And Senator, please learn to use the grammatically correct form of the verb “to lie,” okay?  It should be “Gail and I were lying in bed…”

My sister sent me this satirical HuffPo post by Jeremy Blachman: Todd Akin, Chief of Police. Here’s just a sample:

“Folks, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: In a legitimate terrorist attack, the Earth will open up, and a giant claw will pluck the perpetrator right off the surface of the planet and launch him into space. And even if that doesn’t work, the automatic force field should take care of any problem. And if those two things don’t work… well, if those two things don’t work, I suppose you’re also going to tell me that there’s such a thing as gravity. It should be pretty clear to all of us that since no one was plucked off the face of the Earth by a giant claw emerging from within, this must have been merely a misunderstanding. Yes, a misunderstanding that has left half of our community dead, but it’s not a police issue. And, no, just like last time this happened, I will not be considering any alternative explanations.”

Read it all at the link.

On Tuesday, I heard part of the Morning Joe Show. Joe Scarborough went into one of his rants, this time complaining about how stupid the Stupid Party is. From Raw Story:

On Tuesday’s edition of “Morning Joe,” host Joe Scarborough vented his frustration with Missouri Rep. Todd Akin (R)’s refusal to drop out of the race for U.S. Senate and said that he’s tired of his party being the “Stupid Party.” Akin is the Republican congressman who said in an interview earlier this week that a woman’s body can stop conception in the instance of a “legitimate rape,” thus obviating a need for exemptions from abortion restrictions for the victims of rape and incest.

On Monday, Scarborough said that Akin was evidence of a Republican party that had placed ideology ahead of actual electability and fitness to govern. On Tuesday, with Akin (thus far) refusing to get out of the race, Scarborough made it clear that, to his thinking, the mortally wounded Akin campaign could be spoiling the chances for Republicans to take the majority of seats in the Senate.

“Congressman Akin, you’re in denial,” said Scarborough as if he were addressing Akin, “You’re gonna lose if you stay in the race. And, by the way, your loss could make the difference between a Supreme Court justice that could make all the difference in the issues you claim you care about and having a Barack Obama fifth appointee for majority. So you think about that today when you do your little commercial. And think about destroying the Republican majority. Good on ya.”

Mind you, Scarborough wasn’t upset about the content of Akin’s remarks–just their possible effect on the Stupid Party. Scarborough also noticed that Romney and Ryan have been flat-out lying about Obama and welfare reform. Scarborough:

“I’ve been looking for a week-and-a-half to try to figure out the basis of this welfare reform ad,” Scarborough said, concluding that that the attack is “just completely false, and I’m pretty stunned.”

Here’s what Charles Pierce had to say in response to Scarborough:

Please to be giving me a break here, Squint. What Romney and Ryan are doing has been the off-tackle slant, the most fundamental play from scrimmage, in the Republican playbook on a class basis since forever, and on a racial basis since Harry Dent convinced Richard Nixon that, in many dark places in its heart, the whole country was Alabama. The lies that Romney and Ryan are telling about the president’s views on welfare are no more truthless than were Ronald Reagan’s vicious parables about welfare queens driving their young buck sons to the Piggly Wiggly in their Cadillacs in order to pick up a couple of T-bones. (And, not for nothing, but isn’t this the network that kept shoving Pat Buchanan in our faces long past the time it should have stopped doing so?) Romney and Ryan are race-baiting because they are the members of the Republican ticket and that is what the people in that position have done for almost 40 years now. I will grant you that Willard really has become quite a remarkable liar, but his material is far from original.

JJ sent me this one from New Hampshire: Sheriff candidate says he wouldn’t reject deadly force to stop abortions

A Republican candidate for Hillsborough County Sheriff said Wednesday that he believes elective abortions are unlawful and he wouldn’t reject the use of deadly force to stop them.

Frank Szabo said that as sheriff, he would arrest any doctor performing elective or late-term abortions in his jurisdiction.

“There is a difference between legal and lawful,” Szabo said.

Szabo explained the difference by referring to the issue of slavery, which he said used to be legal but was never lawful under the Constitution. He said that even though elective abortions are legal in New Hampshire, with some restrictions, he doesn’t consider them lawful.

But Szabo may have inflamed the issue further when asked if he would use deadly force to prevent an abortion.

“I would respond specifically by saying that if someone is under threat, a full-grown human being, if they’re under threat, what should the sheriff do? Everything in their power to prevent them from being harmed,” he said.

Yes, he would use deadly force to protect the fetus. BTW, what is an “elective abortion?” Aren’t they all elective? We don’t have forced abortion in the U.S. as far as I know.

Remember how enraged the Stupid Party people were when Joe Biden use the word “chains” in a recent speech? Now don’t go any further if you have PTSD (Palin Trauma Stress Disorder), but the “P” woman did the same thing in a recent Fox News interview.

Are the Stupids outraged about this? I haven’t seen any articles about it.

Next week is the Stupid Party National Convention, and we’re going to be seeing a lot more ignorance on display. I hope this post helped prepare you for the coming onslaught.

Now what are you reading and blogging about today?